Neighborhood leaders in San Diego are giving mixed reviews to City Councilman Scott Sherman’s ambitious set of proposals to sharply increase the amount of housing in the city at prices affordable to middle and low-income workers.

In a joint meeting at City Hall last week, leaders of the city’s community planning groups praised proposals to reduce fees housing developers pay to build nearby parks, incentivize developers to build smaller units instead of larger ones, and accelerate redevelopment of Huffman-style apartment buildings.

The leaders also expressed measured support for easing regulations on granny flats, softening parking requirements and allowing developers to build more intense projects if they contribute to the city’s fund to construct subsidized housing.

They criticized, however, plans to revamp community planning groups and a proposal to make it harder for neighborhoods to be declared historic.

And they also offered some general criticisms of the goal of sharply increasing density, questioning whether that would actually lower local housing prices and whether there is strong demand for smaller units built along transit lines.

Sherman, who recently unveiled two dozen proposals aimed at alleviating the city’s affordable housing crisis, conceded that some of the ideas will prompt philosophical arguments and struggle to gain consensus.

But he told the planners that he and Councilman David Alvarez, who helped craft the proposal, decided to start with the widest possible menu of options and seek feedback.

“It’s so we can have a discussion and let the chips fall where they may," Sherman told the neighborhood leaders. "This is about reducing red tape and seeing what we can do in the government sector to put more product on the street and to do it in a way that it has buy-in from everybody."

"As a homeowner, and certainly for homeowners who have bought at the top of the market, it would seem to me that the prospect of forcing down prices because we're building more housing is very concerning," said Cathy Kenton, chair of the Midway Community Planning Group.

Leo Wilson, chair of the Uptown Community Planning Group, said he doubts the changes will actually lower prices because they don’t address the No. 1 cause of spiking local prices: land costs.

"I really think what you're looking at will have a minimal impact," said Wilson, suggesting the changes may reduce quality of life without lowering prices. "I'm in favor of a lot of the reform. But the market will trump any minor cost reductions that you do."

Others expressed concerns that the changes would increase profits for developers but not lower housing costs, contending that high demand is more responsible for rising prices than low supply.

And Wally Wulfeck, chair of the Scripps Ranch Community Planning Group, said many residents in his suburban community don’t support the goals of lowering prices and increasing supply.

"I think there ought to be a public debate before we talk about accelerating growth as to whether we want growth at all," Wulfeck said. "There's nothing wrong with rising prices of real estate if you are a real estate owner."

Wulfeck said people who can’t afford San Diego’s prices will just have to move elsewhere.

On the individual proposals, the idea that garnered the most support was revamping the formula for developer impact fees to encourage construction of more small units instead of fewer large ones.

"I think that's an interesting idea that actually addresses a specific problem," said David Moty of the Kensington-Talmadge Community Planning Group.

Moty also praised a proposal to change the fees developers pay for parks, echoing the sentiments of several other neighborhood leaders that the city’s formula is wildly unrealistic.

Moty, however, said the city must be cautious because there are some communities with severe shortages of parkland.

“There are still some communities in this city where we're talking about parks deficiencies of 98, 99 or 100 percent," he said.

Others that praised Sherman’s proposals on developer fees and parks requirements also warned that the city can’t cut fees so deeply that there is not money for crucial infrastructure.

There was nearly universal agreement that the city needs to accelerate redevelopment of Huffman-style apartments, where six units underutilize acreage and damage aesthetics by locating parking in the front.

But Vicki Granowitz, a longtime critic of Huffmans as chair of the North Park Community Planning Group, objected to Sherman’s proposal to accelerate the process by sharply reducing public input on replacement projects.

There was much debate about Sherman’s proposals to ease regulations on granny flats, allow units called “junior” granny flats and give amnesty to granny flats built in the past.

Many expressed support, but leaders in beach communities said the city must finalize regulations on short-term vacation rentals before loosening regulations on granny flats.

And Jose Reynoso, chairman of the College Area Community Planning Group, expressed concerns that the amnesty could thwart new city legislation aimed at halting the construction of minidorms, single family homes converted into large complexes with many bedrooms.

Sherman thanked the planners for their feedback and expressed optimism that many of the proposals will garner enough support to be forwarded to the City Council for approval later this year.

"Together I think we can get things done and make it easier for our kids and grandkids to actually afford to live here," he said.

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